Prior to 1969, the National League winner (the”pennant winner”) was determined by the best win-loss record in the end of the regular season. You will find four ad hoc three-game playoff series as a result of ties under this formula (in 1946, 1951, 1959, and 1962). (The American League had to resolve a tie in 1948, however, utilized a single-game playoff.)
A structured postseason series started in 1969, when both the National and American Leagues were broken up into two branches each, East and West. The two division winners in each league played in a best-of-five series to determine who would advance to the World Series. In 1985, the format changed to best-of-seven.
The NLCS and ALCS, since the expansion to seven matches, are always played in two –3–2 format: games 1, 2, 6, and 7 are played at the arena of the group which has home field advantage, and matches 3, 4, and 5 have been played at the arena of the team that doesn’t. Home field advantage is given to the team that has the better record, with the exception that the group that produced the postseason since the Wild Card can’t get home field advantage. From 1969 to 1993, home field advantage was alternated between divisions each calendar year regardless of regular season record and from 1995 to 1997 home field edge was specified prior to the season.
In 1981, a divisional series was held because of a split season caused by a players’ strike.
Back in 1994, the league was restructured into three branches, together with the three division winners and a wild-card team advancing to a best-of-five postseason around, the National League Division Series (NLDS). The winners of that round progress to the best-of-seven NLCS.
The Milwaukee Brewers, an American League team between 1969 and 1997, and the Houston Astros, also a National League group between 1962 and 2012, are the sole franchises to play in both the ALCS and NLCS. The Astros will be the only team to have won both an NLCS (2005) and also an ALCS (2017). The Astros created four NLCS appearances before going to the AL in 2013. Every existing National League franchise has emerged in the NLCS.
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